Noni Madueke is targeting more minutes at Chelsea after scoring the winner in the club’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge.
Madueke came off the bench to score a penalty for Chelsea as the Blues returned to winning ways on Wednesday evening. The winger sent Dean Henderson the wrong way from the spot in the 89th minute to hand Mauricio Pochettino’s side all three points, after being fouled by Eberechi Eze inside the box.
Mykhailo Mudryk had put the West Londoners ahead in the game after converting from Malo Gusto’s cut-back, but Palace hit back and equalised before the break. Michael Olise – who was subject of interest from Chelsea last summer – fired in a low finish to bring the Eagles level at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea looked set for another frustrating evening when Nicolas Jackson saw a goal disallowed for an offside, the closest the Blues came for much of a contest that was punctuated by poor finishing.
Madueke, who had featured for just 130 minutes in the Premier League before this evening and was overlooked in favour of Ian Maatsen to start against Palace, proved a point to Pochettino with a lively late cameo that ended with the winning goal.
“It was a difficult game. Credit to Crystal Palace, they played some good stuff and were difficult to breakdown. But credit to us too, we deserved it,” Madueke said to Amazon Prime.
“It was a stonewall penalty. I scored one earlier in the cup and I was confident with my technique.
“You want to play all the time. You want to be able to make an impact like I did today when you come off the bench.”
